


Fight Back

by kate882



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Alternate Universe - Assassins & Hitmen, Day Five, M/M, and instantly go for major character death, aokuro week 2k17, have you guys missed me?, i come back to this ship after months of not contributing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-09
Updated: 2017-05-09
Packaged: 2018-10-29 23:39:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10864518
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kate882/pseuds/kate882
Summary: Kuroko watched him suspiciously, but kept his expression even. “I'm not interested. Thank you.”“Aomine Daiki.”“I didn't ask.”





	Fight Back

**Author's Note:**

> This has been in my wip folder for like a year now, but I picked it up again for Aokuro week. So don't let your dreams be memes kids, sometimes that fic that hasn't been updated for over a year or that work in progress you haven't touched in forever will be completed. Especially if you have a ship week that you took part in running at the same time as your finals so you don't have time or energy to actually start something new.

Kuroko Tetsuya was supposed to be invisible. That's what made him a good assassin. That's what got him the name Phantom. 

So, it was disconcerting when tall man with tanned skin looked right at him before smirking and taking the seat next to him at the bar.

“You're pretty enough to buy a drink, despite these outrageous prices. What would you like?” The man asked him with a charming smile.

Kuroko watched him suspiciously, but kept his expression even. “I'm not interested. Thank you.”

“Aomine Daiki.”

“I didn't ask.”

“And yet now you know anyway. So, you got a name to go with that cold personality?” Aomine asked.

“Takiru Terushima,” Kuroko lied. He wasn't on a mission. Theoretically he didn't need an alias, but his instincts were telling him not to trust the man next to him.

“Ouch. Fake name. Dislike me that much, huh?”

Kuroko’s eyes widened marginally and he felt himself tense. “Relax. I'm not stalking you or whatever's got you all worked up. You dropped this.” He held up Kuroko’s wallet. “Kuroko Tetsuya. It took me forever to spot you to return this, and your picture does not do you justice, Tetsu.”

Kuroko relaxed slightly. Aomine saw him because he was looking for the person he was returning the wallet to. Although, it wasn't like Kuroko to drop his wallet in the first place.

He took the wallet back and looked through to make sure nothing was missing. He found instead that something was added. A scrap of paper with a phone number on it. “You can have this back.” Kuroko held it out to Aomine.

Aomine chuckled. “Keep it. Even if you plan to just recycle it, you look like the recycling type, it won't do me any good. I know my own number, after all.”

Kuroko continued to hold it out until Aomine took it back with a sigh. “What's a man gotta do to get your interest?” He asked.

“How do you know I want a man in the first place?” Kuroko arched an eyebrow at him.

“Do you not?” Aomine returned, arching an eyebrow right back at him.

“I suppose we’ll find out.” He turned to the bar tender and spoke up to get her attention. “My usual. On Aomine-kun’s tab.”

A grin spread across Aomine’s face. “So you do like me!”

“I like free alcohol,” Kuroko corrected, taking a glass from the bartender containing an alarming number of hard liquors mixed together.

“I’ll consider it progress,” Aomine said, ordering a whiskey for himself.

“It is.”

“And now that I’ve gotten this far, what’s my next move to get to see you again?”

“Again? And here I thought you were looking for a one night stand.”

“Oh, you’re far too pretty to spend just one night with, Tetsu.” Aomine leaned closer to purr into his ear, “One night won’t cover all of the things that I want to do to you.”

“Quite forward, aren’t you, Aomine-kun?” Kuroko said passively, but Aomine hadn’t missed the slight shiver that had gone down the smaller man’s spine.

“Forward enough to catch your attention since you’re still talking to me.”

“And if I got up and walked away?”

“I’d hope you were planning on coming back, but wouldn’t do anything to stop you,” Aomine said with a shrug, leaning back in his seat to take a sip of his own drink, continuing to watch Kuroko over the edge of his glass.

“My place. Not yours,” Kuroko decided after a moment. He still wasn’t sure how much he trusted that Aomine was just a regular person who simply had an interest in him, so he’d rather be in an area he knew where all of the weapons were if he needed them.

Aomine’s whole face lit up in a grin. “Yes sir,” he answered with a mock salute.

* * *

Kuroko stayed awake the whole night, feigning sleep to wait and see what Aomine would do while Kuroko was presumably defenseless. But Aomine did nothing. He fell asleep with Kuroko wrapped up in his arms, though the hold was too loose to be restraining. Maybe Kuroko was becoming too paranoid. . .

He didn’t like that thought, but it was entirely possible.

There were plenty of people in his field of work who didn’t trust anyone at all after a while. They had stabbed enough backs that they didn’t believe that someone else wouldn’t do the same to them. It usually got those people killed because they couldn’t even trust their partners after a while. Kuroko certainly didn’t want to turn into someone like that. Some people were just people. And while he wasn’t on a job, Kuroko was just a person too. A person who worked as a teacher, and could have relationships with people like Aomine if he so chose to. And a person who killed people for a living when he wasn’t doing his day job as a teacher.

Kagami would probably encourage him to pursue a relationship, actually. He was convinced that Kuroko didn’t get enough social interaction outside of him and Akashi. Akashi, his other partner, would probably encourage it too after doing an extensive background check on Aomine.

Akashi and Kagami would also tell him to trust his instincts though, and those were telling him that something wasn’t right.

At around seven he decided to get up to make coffee, and found Aomine to be a light sleeper. “Tetsu?” He asked, looking up at Kuroko blurrily as Kuroko got out of bed and pulled on a pair of pajama pants.

“Good morning, Aomine-kun.”

“Are we really back to Aomine-kun? I liked Daiki so much better,” Aomine whined, sitting up and rubbing his eyes before looking at the clock and pulling a disgusted face. “Oh god, you’re a morning person.” He sounded horrified.

“How do you take your coffee, Aomine-kun?” Kuroko asked instead of replying to any of what Aomine had said, slipping on a tshirt that he had stolen from Kagami.

“Black,” Aomine answered absently, still looking at the clock like it had personally offended him.

Kuroko may have given Aomine a similar look to the one that Aomine was giving his clock if he hadn’t been better trained.

He walked into the kitchen, starting the coffee and getting out some eggs to make breakfast, all the while listening to make sure that Aomine wasn’t going through his things.

He didn’t have to listen in for long. Aomine emerged from his bedroom, draping himself on Kuroko, arms around his waist and head resting on top of Kuroko’s. “It’s so early. Come back to bed.”

“I’ve already started coffee,” Kuroko answered, stepping out of Aomine’s arms to continue making food.

“Breakfast in bed?” Aomine tried hopefully.

“You will absolutely not be bringing food into my bed. I won't have crumbs on my sheets.”

Aomine deflated and Kuroko replied by simply handing him a coffee cup that he had poured while talking. He poured his own as well, with a liberal amount of sugar and cream mixed in. “Is that even coffee anymore?” Aomine asked as he blew on his to try and cool it down.

“Of course it is. Some of us just like to enjoy our drinks,” Kuroko answered, taking a pleased sip, not even flinching slightly at the scalding heat.

Aomine laughed, and it was really kind of a charming sound. Kuroko could admit to himself that he wouldn't mind hearing it again. “Whatever you say, princess.” Kuroko might have stepped on his foot when he moved to plate the eggs. Aomine, for his part, didn't show any indication that he felt it.

* * *

“When are you going to let me take you on an actual date?” Aomine asked as he played with Kuroko’s hair, trailing soft kisses along his neck and shoulder. It was his fifth time staying the night at Kuroko’s, but Kuroko always kicked him out in the morning after breakfast to go to work, and other than their first meeting at the bar they had only seen each other at Kuroko’s apartment.

Kuroko raised his eyebrows even though Aomine couldn't see. “When are you going to ask me on one?”

Aomine lifted his head to look down at Kuroko. “For real?” The disbelief was clear in his voice.

“I didn't realize you were interested in more. You just text me ‘can I see you?’ and considering you were propositioning me for sex before, and you seem perfectly fine with coming over for sex and free breakfast, I'm not sure where I was supposed to draw a different conclusion.”

Aomine rolled his eyes. “That's all you offer when I text you. Alright, let me be super clear then: Kuroko Tetsuya, will you go on a date with me?” He gave Kuroko a wide smile that Kuroko knew he wasn't going to say no to.

“Well not right this moment. I was kind of hoping we were headed in the direction of a second round.”

Aomine’s grin grew wider. “But later, right?”

“We can get dinner this weekend. Now shut up and kiss me already.”

* * *

It was three dates before Kuroko let Aomine take him back to his place. Aomine had just gotten back from a business trip, and they had gone for coffee. “I live like two blocks from here,” Aomine had told him, and Kuroko really didn't have a reason to say no. Besides, Aomine had been in Kuroko’s place several times without trying anything. He really was just getting too paranoid.

Aomine’s place was perfectly normal, if a bit messy. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

“Sorry about the mess. There's no excuse, this is just who I am as a person,” Aomine gave him a sheepish smile and Kuroko returned it with a small smile of his own.

“I expected worse, honestly,” he told Aomine.

“Excuse you! Well, I got you a present on my trip, but maybe I won't give it to you now,” Aomine huffed.

Kuroko's eyes widened slightly and he tilted his head. “You got me something?”

“Yeah, thought of you when I saw it, and before I knew it I had bought it. But now I don't know … maybe I'll just keep it.”

“Well I'm not going to beg if that's what you're hoping for.” Kuroko crossed his arms over his chest.

“Aww, but you're so good at it,” Aomine teased. Kuroko just rolled his eyes. “Alright alright, you win.”

It turned out to be a mug with  _ “coffee” addict  _ written on it. “Why is coffee in quotes?”

“Who the hell knows, but what you drink barely counts as coffee, so it seemed fitting.”

Kuroko pretended to be offended, but he did start drinking his “coffee”, suspiciously placed quotations and all, from the mug Aomine gave him when Aomine wasn't there to see it being used.

* * *

 

Aomine and Kagami did not get along.

Akashi seemed to be withholding opinion for the time being. Which probably meant it wasn't a good one, but it was hard to tell sometimes with him.

“Who the hell are you calling an idiot, idiot?” The shouting was starting to draw attention.

“Can we just agree that you're both idiots and move on?” Akashi asked, picking up one of his fries, looking at it and then seeming to change his mind as he dropped it back with the others and pushed his tray towards Kuroko. Honestly, it was a small miracle that Akashi had agreed to meet them for fast food, Kuroko had never expected him to actually eat it.

“He started it!” Aomine and Kagami shouted at the same time and then turned matching glares on each other.

Akashi let out a put upon sigh. “You couldn't have just dated Tiaga. You had to get another loud mouthed idiot.” Aomine made an offended sound while Kagami looked unsure if he wanted to laugh or also be offended, but Kuroko was pretty sure it was as close to approval as Akashi was going to give.

“Tetsu, are you really going to let your friend talk to me like that?”

Kuroko just shrugged and took a bite of one of Akashi’s fries, small smile tugging at his lips.

* * *

It was a few months before Kuroko was able to actually sleep with Aomine around. Even then it was only for short periods where he would drift off and then wake up less than an hour later. Still, he considered it progress.

“I love you,” he told Aomine sleepily one morning as they exchanged lazy kisses and sunlight poured over them from the bedroom window.

Aomine looked almost pained for a moment as he returned the sentiment, and tried to hide it by kissing Kuroko again.

But Kuroko kept thinking about it.

He thought about it and thought about it until he found himself following Aomine on one of his “business trips”.

He couldn't really say he was surprised. Betrayed, sad, hurt, resigned, but not really surprised like he wanted to be.

He tried to tell himself that he was lying to Aomine too. A teacher retreat. Parent teacher conferences. Late nights grading. It was the same thing really as Aomine telling him he was going on a business trip.

But there was really only one reason a killer would target another killer the way Aomine had so clearly targeted him when they first met.

And yet Kuroko couldn't bring himself to leave. Flee the country and change his name and never see Aomine again.

He was in too deep. But God did it hurt. Like a physical pain in his chest as sobs wracked his body.

* * *

It took another month for it to happen. Kuroko had taken a few days to compose himself after what he’d found out, but then decided to just make the most of the time he had with Aomine.

He woke up with Aomine on top of him and the cold metal of a gun pressed up against his temple. Aomine’s hands were shaking. Kuroko looked steadily up at him, but Aomine didn’t do anything.

“It’s for the job, right? Go ahead then. I get it,” Kuroko’s voice came out calm, but Aomine flinched as though Kuroko had shouted it at him.

“Do something!” It was Aomine who shouted, but Kuroko just blinked at him. “Fight back, attack me, do  _ something.”  _ Aomine blinked back tears and Kuroko reached up to crease his cheek. “At least try to live,” Aomine whispered.

Kuroko’s eyes hardened a bit, his lips tilting downwards ever so slightly. “No. I’m not going to give you that out. You can’t justify this by telling yourself it was you or me. If you’re going to do it you’re going to do it looking me in the eyes, and I’m not going to fight you.”

“Tetsu I-”

“I know. I’ve known,” he reassured.

“I really do love you.”

Kuroko looked at him consideringly. “I never thought you didn’t. But that’s not enough. Is it?”

“Don’t- you know if I don’t someone else will. You  _ know it, Tetsu.” _

“Someone would try,” Kuroko conceded. “But you’ll do it.”

“Tetsu.” Aomine’s voice cracked, his eyes were pleading. Pleading for what, Kuroko couldn’t be sure. Forgiveness? An excuse? Something else?

Kuroko leaned up and pressed a soft kiss to Aomine’s lips. “Daiki, it’s okay.” He smiled reassuringly. “It’s okay.” His eyes were watering. He didn’t particularly want to die. But he wasn’t going to fight Aomine. He couldn’t.

Aomine pulled the trigger when his own tears started falling.

“What did I do?” He whispered, the blood splattered across his face burned as he clutched Kuroko to him. “Oh my god, what did I do?”


End file.
